The CERN Control Centre is up and running!

The CERN Control Centre (CCC) that combines all the control rooms for the accelerators, the cryogenic system and the technical infrastructure came into operation on 1st February.


This is not a mock-up but the real thing! The CERN Control Centre has been built and put into operation in only 15 months.


On 1st February, at 2.00 p.m., Patrick Villeton Pachot started the first Technical Infrastructure shift at the brand new CERN Control Centre.

From now on, when you dial 72201 to report a leak or an electrical fault, your call will ring out in the brand new CERN Control Centre. The much anticipated CCC came on line on 1st February, exactly as planned. The 2.00 p.m. shift by the operators of the former Technical Control Room (TCR), now renamed TI for Technical Infrastructure, marked the start of operations at the Centre.

The PCR, MCR, TCR and QCR are no more, and all the individual control rooms have been merged into one. And what a control room it is! True to the streamlined image announced when the project was first launched (see Weekly Bulletin No. 27/2004), the new sleek centre is spacious, with a blue colour scheme, large windows along the whole of one side and numerous monitoring screens, lending it a futuristic look. It should be borne in mind that during peak operation periods, there may be up to 13 operators working on any one shift in the room, not counting the many experts responsible for assisting them. The Centre, therefore, has 39 consoles for four different areas (the LHC, the SPS, the PS complex and the technical infrastructure). The consoles for the cryogenic system will be distributed between the LHC area and that for the technical infrastructure.

The accelerator operators have already begun finding their bearings. On 13 February it will be the turn of the PS and Booster teams to sit at the consoles to launch the applications. They will be followed by their colleagues from the SPS and the cryogenic system. An official inauguration of the Control Centre is soon planned.

Hats off to the teams in AB, AT and TS Departments which have participated in this joint project. Practically all the other departments have also contributed to the construction, installation and networking of the Centre in less than 15 months.